Chapter 22: The Seriously Injured Young Man on a Winter Day

  Ye Haodong met Jiang Lan for the second time, only ten minutes after their first encounter. Holding the unsent Wuliangye and Hongtashan, Ye Haodong stood bored at the side of the road waiting for a ride, when he happened to turn around and saw Jiang Lan rushing out of the shantytown with a panicked expression, shouting loudly: "Mom, where are you? Mom, come back quickly!"

  Ye Haodong quickened his pace and walked a few steps forward, asking: "What's wrong? What happened? Your mom is gone?"

  Jiang Lan's face was flustered, and she had already lost her composure. Upon hearing Ye Haodong's inquiry, she nodded hastily and asked: "Did you see an old lady in her fifties earlier? She was wearing a gray sweater on top and blue pants on the bottom, about my height?"

  Ye Haodong thought back carefully and didn't have any impression, probably because they hadn't met before.

  He shook his head and asked: "Will he leave early?"

  Jiang Lan said anxiously but firmly, "Absolutely impossible. When I went home, the kettle was still on the stove, and the water had just boiled. My mom must have left right after we did."

  "Don't be in a hurry, shouting blindly is useless. If your mom could hear you, you would have seen her by now. Go report to the police first and ask them to help keep an eye out. I'll find some friends to go with you to search for her on the main street."

  Jiang Lan was originally a clever and opinionated girl, and now she had calmed down after talking to Ye Haodong. She didn't say anything else, just nodded at Ye Haodong and hurriedly rushed to the police station.

  Ye Haodong wanted to call the factory to get someone to come and help, but at this time Li Weidong and others had already finished work early. Moreover, it was too far away, and by the time they arrived, it would be dark, making it even harder to find her. From Jiang Lan's anxious expression and description, Ye Haodong analyzed that the old lady who had never met before probably had some mental illness. At this time, she shouldn't have gone too far, and now was the best time to look for someone. Ye Haodong calmly analyzed the situation around him and felt that the old lady might not have gone far. The only connection between this slum area and the outside world was this main road, and if the old lady came out, she had no reason not to meet anyone. If the old lady hadn't left, then she should still be in the slum area. According to her situation, Ye Haodong analyzed that she shouldn't have any friends to visit in the neighborhood. If someone had kidnapped her for revenge against Jiang Wei, it would make more sense to kidnap her sister instead. This possibility was also unlikely. Ye Haodong estimated that she should be waiting for her daughter to finish school and was anxious, so she went out to take a look and accidentally encountered something or someone who took her away, but didn't take her out of the slum area.

  Thinking of these situations, Ye Haodong decided to return to the shantytown immediately and try his luck.

  He quickly ran to the front of Jiang Wei's house, carefully observed the marks at the door, and suddenly discovered a strange print. It was a deep circular mark, next to which was a very shallow footprint, while the corresponding footprint was very deep. After thinking for a moment about who could match this situation, Ye Hao thought of a song lyric, "Leaving two and a half footprints" from his grandmother's Penghu Bay, which was a footprint left by a lame person, and it extended into Jiang Wei's courtyard.

  He was standing at the door, and Jiang Lan had already brought back two police officers with batons. It turned out that after listening to her account, the police also analyzed that the old lady hadn't left the neighborhood. Due to the old lady's special situation, the police were also very concerned and immediately sent someone to her home to investigate the scene.

  Ye Haodong didn't look at the suspicious gaze of the two policemen, and hastily asked Jiang Lan: "Is there a man with a lame leg living near your home?"

  Although Jiang Lan felt that Ye Hao Dong's question was a bit strange, she still carefully recalled it and suddenly thought of something: "Ah, I remember, there is a man in his 40s with leg problems who rented a house here. What's going on? Is my mom's disappearance related to him?"

  Ye Haodong shook his head: "It's not certain yet, but one thing is for sure, your mother's disappearance must be related to a person with leg problems who uses a crutch. First tell me where that person lives, I want to go take a look first, you stay here and accompany the two police officers to investigate the scene."

  One of the two policemen heard this and hummed: "You're quite familiar with police jargon, you're a hoodlum, huh?"

  Ye Haodong glanced at him, a very young policeman, about twenty years old. Ignoring the policeman, Ye Haodong quickly ran over in the direction indicated by Jiang Lan.

  As he arrived at the gate of the courtyard, Ye Haodong's suspicions grew even heavier. In broad daylight, the gate was closed from the inside, and there were faint cries for help coming from within the house, as if someone's mouth was being forcibly gagged, unable to shout out loud.

  Ye Haodong made a decisive move, not even knocking, and lifted his leg to kick the large gate open. The thick hinges with long nails were pulled out of the door frame by a huge force. Ye Haodong stepped inside and arrived at the front of the main house. Just as he was about to kick the door, it was opened from the inside. A middle-aged man with obvious leg defects supported an old lady who looked like Jiang Lan's description, holding a screwdriver in his hand.

  "Don't come over here, if you take another step I'll kill her!" The man yelled hysterically.

  Ye Haodong saw that the guy's hands were shaking, obviously very nervous, afraid of unexpected events, and didn't dare to stimulate him. He retreated two steps along with his meaning and said: "Don't get excited, I'm asking you, what have you done?"

  A middle-aged man with a crying tone: "I didn't do anything, I drank and my brain was all muddled, anyway, I brought her back in a daze, but before I could do anything, you arrived, I really didn't do anything!"

  "Then did you hurt her?"

  The man continued to cry: "No, I didn't hit her, just covered her mouth."

  Ye Haodong nodded reassuringly: "Oh, then it's no big deal, put down the screwdriver. If you accidentally hurt this aunt, that would be a serious matter, kidnapping and injuring someone is punishable by death, don't turn yourself into a death row prisoner over something so trivial."

  The middle-aged man listened and was skeptical: "Who are you? How did you know I'm fine now?"

  Ye Haodong: "If you want to talk about breaking the law, I'm still your senior. Believe me, as long as you stop now and turn back, it's not a big deal."

  The man gradually relaxed after hearing his words, and the screwdriver in his hand finally fell down. However, just at this moment, the two police officers also rushed over from a distance. The man saw the police and suddenly became tense again, with the screwdriver in his hand about to rise, but his movements were more resolute than before. Ye Haodong saw that things were not going well and quickly jumped forward, punching the man's eyes with his left fist while grabbing the tip of the screwdriver aimed at the old lady with his right hand. The man was knocked down by a punch, but the screwdriver in his hand stabbed Ye Haodong's right hand fiercely before he fell. The old lady was scared and crouched on the ground, covering her ears and crying loudly. It wasn't until then that Ye Haodong noticed that although this old lady was over 50 years old, she looked surprisingly young, and her appearance still had a hint of her former elegance, guessing that she must have been more beautiful than that girl back in the day.

  Ye Haodong's hand was bleeding, but he didn't care. Instead, he quickly took off his leather jacket and put it on the old lady who had been stripped down to her underclothes and was shivering in the cold wind. The police and Jiang Lan arrived just in time to see this scene. The young policeman walked up to the middle-aged man and looked at him, then curled his lip: "You've got a heavy hand, his eye socket is smashed in, but it's well-deserved, that kind of scum deserves to be beaten to death."

  Jiang Lan rushed up and hugged her mother who was clearly shocked, then turned back to Ye Haodong and said in a low voice: "Thank you."

  Ye Haodong didn't mince words, but worriedly said: "Auntie has been traumatized, that bastard first covered Auntie's mouth and later used a screwdriver to harm her. You'd best take her to the hospital now."

  The older policeman, who was only twenty-seven or eight years old: "My motorcycle is outside, I'll take the three of them to the hospital. Little Chu, you bring this suspect back first and lock him in the interrogation room. Wait for me to come back and 'interrogate' him."

  In the hospital, after Ye Haodong finished bandaging his hand, he came to the payment counter and left all 1,200 yuan in cash on him. It was already very late, Jiang Lan's mother seemed to need to stay in the hospital for observation for a day or two, Ye Haodong was afraid that his mother would worry and hurried back home, so he paid the money and didn't even take his clothes back, leaving alone.

  Jiang Lan's mother gradually stabilized after being injected with tranquilizers. It was only then that Jiang Lan remembered that her mother's leather jacket had not been returned to Ye Haodong, and in this cold weather, he must have frozen to death by now. However, when she rushed out to look for him, all she saw was Ye Haodong's distant back. In the harsh winter of the north, the young man wore only a cartoon-patterned sweater, looking a bit ridiculous, but Jiang Lan felt deeply moved and not at all amused.

  Beijingkou is a place where you can eat at any time of day or night, regardless of the season. This is the location of the North Gate of Gangcheng General Factory, and during the daytime, all kinds of businesses are available on the street, bustling with activity. At night, various vendors selling midnight snacks emerge one after another, competing for the nighttime snack allowance of workers on the night shift. These locals, born and raised here, are often very united, so it's rare to see any hooligans causing trouble in this area.

  Jiang Wei has been lying in wait here for half a month, and he was appointed as the new head of the Xinguang District Branch Bureau's Criminal Police Team some time ago. Half a month ago, he received a tip that Shan Longhu had severely injured a prison guard, stolen a gun, and escaped from prison, possibly hiding out in this area.

  Jiang Wei's mission was to find him without harming any innocent people, either by capturing him on the spot if there was an opportunity, or by applying for support first and then driving him to a suitable location to wait for the main force to carry out the capture.

  They had been staking out for half a month, and there was no movement at all, which made the task force guys very depressed. The key figure being monitored, with very regular comings and goings every day, couldn't see any abnormalities. This even made Jiang Wei suspicious of the intelligence from his superiors.

  Jiang Wei learned about the incident at home and hurriedly found a team leader to replace himself. He rushed to the hospital overnight, but also missed Ye Haodong. Unexpectedly, this small mistake almost made their last meeting a permanent farewell.